How the Escort topped the UK touring cars
Alan Mann Racing was entrusted with putting the Ford Escort on track for the first time in the British Saloon Car Championship, and it took over the laurels from the much-loved Lotus Cortina. It had some big shoes to fill.
Alan Mann employed no-nonsense Australian Frank Gardner. He began the season in the olderspecification Lotus Cortina Mk2, before the Escort made its debut in the British Saloon Car Championship in 1968 at Crystal Palace on June 3 and he was immediately a class victor.
He was joined on the grid for the next round at Mallory Park later on in June in a 1600cc supercharged version driven by Peter Arundell, but the extra power output meant it was in the top class against some of the brutish Ford Falcon Sprints.
That car was also driven by rally expert Roger Clark at the following round at Brands Hatch, although he ended up having a sizeable accident.
Jackie Oliver also joined the team in the supercharged Escort later on in 1968 and Graham Hill raced it at Oulton Park in August.
They were up against it battling with the American heavy metal, Gardner just kept on winning and eventually took the overall championship title with nine class victories.
Alongside the Alan Mann Racing cars, Broadspeed had switched from the Anglia to the Ford Escort 1300 GT and ran in the third class in the hands of Chris Craft and John Fitzpatrick. Other privateers appeared too.
The Escort’s days of winning the championship were short, mainly due to the structure of the BSCC – the smaller-engined cars tended to dominate overall and from 1970-1972 Bill Mcgovern took three straight titles in his Sunbeam Imp.
The twin-cam version of the Escort was replaced with the RS1600 in 1971, while the lower divisions were populated by the 1300 GT through until 1973.
The car took many class wins in many classes, but its days at the head of the championship were over when the BSCC, which was run by the RAC Motor Sports Association, adopted Group 1B regulations, which altered the class structure based on engine size and mitigated against more success.